COTFS - Scion

Well, the Canopus went down fairly quickly, Guo Yu thought, standing over its corpse while Alex attempted to memorize the scripts under its scales as fast as he could. Maybe it was just him, but the snake looked a lot more like a crashed train of coaster carts right now. Just a few moments ago, the Scions, newly-ascended Demigods, peppered the snake with bullets of many different calibers while juggling the tasks of dodging its crushing coils and staying upright on the tracks. Regardless, the deed was done and the Scions, sans Alex and the detectives, went back to the Wynn to report their findings. Alex and the Golden Boys, on the other hand, went back to Yu’s suite to properly translate the literature; he gathered during his text-skimming that the scripts were in some way related to the Black Feather Shroud. All relatively good things must end however, and as the gods at the Wynn praised their children for their good work, Yu’s cell phone began to vibrate ominously. The Scion took the call and heard Alex’s voice, which began to explain that the Shroud had more to it than previously believed, before, in the background, a door was kicked down and gunfire erupted. Yu shouted to his comrades that there was trouble afoot back at the suite, and the band quickly clambered into Tucker’s red Ferrari.

Yu gingerly stepped through the doorway - there was no door left, but its splinters were strewn everywhere - and laid his eyes on the results of the carnage. In the middle of the suite sat the safe, empty, which had previously held the Black Feather Shroud. Under one of the couches was Alex, seemingly alive; Yu walked on over and tossed it side, letting the boy get up, while the rest of his comrades searched the suites for his detectives. Luckily, nobody died, but everyone was pretty banged up: Tucker was pinned to his bedroom wall by a katana through the shoulder, and the other Golden Boys were unconscious and badly bruised, with ample amounts of spent bullet casings and thug corpses laying around them. Yu quietly commended them for their effort, while Ami tended to Tucker, when Alex reminded them that the Shroud had been stolen. The Scions had to work quick if they wanted to track a fresh trail, so Archimedes and Hiro took it upon themselves to carry out some reconnaissance.

Eventually, the animals tailed the thieves to the roof of the Excalibur hotel; Yu noted the comically cartoonish red and blue tipped castle towers to the side, which didn’t help the fact that they were having a showdown on a faux medieval castle. Of course, it wasn’t ha-ha funny, since the four Scions were facing off against a slew of Yakuza thugs, Spartoi and zombies, in addition to the four Scions behind them - they were Brynja Sigurdson, Kane Taoka, Victor Fingers(the names of the first three were acquired after a bit of pre-fight banter), and Johnny Lee. Kane brandished the Black Feather Shroud and laid it on his shoulders as the Scions watched helplessly, unable to interfere due to the sea of belligerents standing before them. After no more than a couple seconds, Yu and Hakon heard a piercing scream shattering the sunny skies and Ami dropped to her knees, color draining from her face. As Kane Taoka glowed as bright as any star, clouds and darkness began to eat away the clear blue sky, replacing the sunshine with torrents of rain and lightning clawing the skies. Thinking quickly, Yu drew his revolver in one swift motion and emptied his chambers in Kane’s direction. Unfortunately, the bullets merely bounced off the Scion’s ichor-reinforced skin and clattered to the floor; no mere bullets could stop Taoka now, for he was now a god. Kane glared and threw out his hands, aiming to punish the detective for his insolence: Yu quickly rolled away as he felt the temperature of the air around him spike - solar fires exploded where he had stood a moment earlier. With this exchange, the quiet of Kane Taoka’s ritual to godhood ended and a brawl erupted. Victor Fingers and his Spartoi engaged Alexander in battle with an anachronistic combination of old Roman gear and modern firearms, Sasaki Ami fought Taoka’s Shadow Shinobi and Yakuza gangsters after getting over her bout of nausea, Hakon and his raven Huginn attacked Brynja and her horde of zombies, and Guo Yu dueled Johnny Lee, each applying their expertise in close-quarters combat.

Yu swung a hook into Johnny’s face, before following up with a roundhouse kick to the chest, sending him flying back; before Johnny could react, Yu moved as fast as thought, delivering a flying kick that nearly sent Son Wukong’s Scion straight off the roof. However, Lee caught himself after going over the edge, flipped back onto his feet, and extended his Ruyi Jingu Bang straight into Yu’s forehead. The now-extremely-long bo staff sailed down towards Yu’s prone self, who quickly jumped to his feet and parried with his jian, liberating the tip of the rod. Johnny Lee shrunk his staff in frustration and snapped into fighting stance; Yu obliged, sheathing is jian, and sprinted, aiming to beat the shit out of his rival. Blurred limbs moving more than mortally possible struck back and forth between the two, momentum seemingly lifting them into the air - eventually, the exchange of fists and feet ended with a collision of their fists, creating a shock wave that sent rain, dust, and pieces of concrete flying from the nexus of the force. However, before the two could continue, a bolt of lightning struck the ground between them, causing them to jump back in surprise; still new to his godhood, Kane Taoka, now hovering in the sky, threw another bolt, this time with literally deadly accuracy. Calling on the blessings of the Celestial Bureaucracy, Guo Yu braced himself and spin-kicked, parrying the lightning with a mere foot and redirected the energy into Lee, who convulsed as electricity coursed through and singed his body.

With Johnny now out of the picture, Yu went after the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment, momentarily stopping to skewer three Shadow Shinobi on his arm; with a singular goal in his mind, namely freeing the Shroud from Kane’s shoulders, Yu took a hold of the fragment, extended its length, and pole vaulted into the air, making a hurried grab at Kane’s source of power. Of course, though, Taoka simply seized Yu from mid-air and slugged him in the stomach before dropping him back to the ground. Interpreting Guo Yu’s attack as a challenge, the new god summoned a Shadow Dragon to devour Yu - as the creature prepared to engulf Guo in its pitch-black maw, Yu’s lion materialized from thin air and pounced on the serpent, tearing at its throat with stone fangs. Yu quickly leap-frogged over the shi-shi and locked the dragon’s neck in a soul-rending vice, crushing the life out of the demon before finishing it off by repeatedly slamming its head into the roof; with the dragon down for the count, the detective moved on and redirected his attention to Taoka. However, the fight between Alexander, Victor Fingers, and his Spartoi had moved in front of Kane, blocking his access. The gun battle had devolved into a straight knife duel after both parties expended their ammunition; with a not so valiant sucker punch, Yu struck Victor in the neck, leaving Alex an opening - the boy took Victor’s own M-16 and crushed his face with the butt of the rifle. Back to back, the two Scions fended off the rest of the Spartoi, until none was left to stand between the two and Kane Taoka. Deciding that godhood allowed him the opportunity to toy with Yu like a movie villain, Kane descended down to the ground and drew his katana, baiting Yu into attacking him. As Yu stepped forward, he heard Alex protest “what the fuck” as Hakon had just threw one of his poison darts at him. Having been put under a spell by his niece, Brynja, Hakon had been swayed into fighting his own band; Yu, seeking to knock him out of his enchantment, socked the assassin in the face before moving onto Taoka. Guo Yu then grabbed Alex by his collar and hoisted him up, shouting “get the shroud!”; before his companion could object, Yu threw the armor-clad warrior at Kane. Unfortunately, the god simply moved up the z-axis and Alex missed, flying off the roof into one of the towers. Groaning, Yu approached Taoka and the two engaged in a sword fight, perhaps equally matched in skill, but Yu had the advantage of a divinely-crafted weapon. Sensing that Taoka’s mundane katana was weakening, Yu disarmed the god by snapping the katana with a well-placed kick, and readied another attack before horns in the distance sounded and out of four ethereal portals came four ships made of toenails and holding countless numbers of Norse undead. They poured out of their ships and flowed over the three remaining and standing on the roof - Kane, Ami and Yu - like a sea of dead flesh, attempting to consume anything divine. Luckily for our heroes, Kane took the brunt of the zombie deluge, having been emitting energies fit for a god; the undead eventually freed the Shroud from Kane’s possession, and the god doubled over, vomiting golden ichor. As the dead sea-men descended on the mess, consuming it, Yu freed himself of the undead dogpile long enough to deliver one more punch, breaking Kane’s nose, before he was beaten back once again by the zombies. Eventually, the swarms of undead fell from Yu and Ami, allowing them to escape from the roof of the hotel.

The Scions reconvened at the Wynn, reporting their mission. The Shroud was gone - Yu suspected Loki had acquired it - which meant the Scions had failed. However, Kane’s plans were foiled, and he had earned himself a place on the Amatsukami’s hit list, so the situation wasn’t a total loss. With all things said and done, the gods made it clear that their mission, for the time being, was now over. Days later, the Scions said their goodbyes to each other: Yu and his Golden Boys went back to Shanghai, having spent all of their vacation days in Vegas, Alex flew to New York, Hakon flew back to Finland, and Ami flew back to Japan.

It was where we last left our heroes. Canopus, a giant roller-coaster snake, came bursting out before anyone could sense it coming. The police were definitely coming and so they had to get out of there quickly. It tried to clinch the Scion, Guo but failed. Guo attacked it with his revolver dealing damage to it. Hakon attacks it next with his glock, forgetting entirely that he had his Winchester with him, and effectively hurts it a litlte. The other members of the band go and hurt it as well. It was defeated by Ami. The heroes had the floor collapse from under them and they luckily pulled themselves up from that. They would have died if they had fallen that far except for maybe the sturdiest of the group (aka Guo). Alexander reads the paragraphs written in greek and then goes off with Yu’s detectives to decipher the text. He would then be going straight to the black feather shroud. The others went to the Wynn. Loki got bits and pieces of the information from Hakon who was told so by the raven (the raven speaking Finnish).

It was when they relayed what happened that one of the Scion’s cellphones rings (Guo’s). Alexander sounds like he found something and then there was sounds of something going on and the phone call ended prematurely before Alexander could say anymore. The rest of the heroes rush on over to find the place wrecked and the shroud gone. Guo got the couch off of him and checked with his detectives. There was some girl that did the frosty stuff to one of them. The others had various injuries and wouldn’t be able to help. Alexander gets up and tells them that he can tail them. It was with the use of Archimedes and Ami’s wolf that they found them on top of Excalibur, the hotel, that Hakon ironically was staying at. The heroes wasted a bunch of time chitchatting and Kane Taoka assumes godhood. Ami falls down and feels weak. She wouldn’t be able to use her birthrights. A feminine scream was heard coming from somewhere. The shroud stole the power of the divine parent and gave it to the scion who wielded the cloak.

Huginn attacks the followers of the enemy band with his shadow breath and Hakon starts engaging in a fight against Brynja which didn’t go so well. Guo was involved in a fight against his counterpart while Alexander was with his. Guo, being involved in an dramatic kung-fu fight with the other guy, couldn’t help the others. He rebounded the lightning into his counterpart with a spinkick. Ami tried to fight against the now-ascended god guy. Hakon had his knife thrown over there just so that she could have a weapon, not knowing that she could still use them and so was left with the dagger. The dagger was stuck in Brynja’s staff. He got the clue about who she was and started saying things about that he wouldn’t fight against her. She made some remark about how she had the zombies to fight for her. Huginn was struck by lightning and fell out of view. A chunk of the roof was blown off. A shadow dragon was spawned. and a bunch of stuff happened.

Hakon barely avoided being hurt several times and was nearly at Brynja for the second time when she used her charismatic charm to stop him from attacking her. He started attacking his fellow bandmates, particularly Alex. Guo punched him, sending Hakon onto his back with comical stars circling around his head. Hakon muttered something and got back up eventually. Brynja said that she should sit down since he wasn’t doing too well.

It was after much time that ships broke through the dimensions and crashed down onto the roof. Out of these ships came the deathless sailors, draugr popped out. Brynja was surprised but wasn’t harmed by them. Hakon took this as a sign to leave and did so promptly leaving the rest to their fate. He did shout maybe one or two things like how they should stay alive but not in that fashion. Huginn had left much earlier and was back with Loki already before Hakon could arrive there.

Hakon related what was happening there and Loki had his enigmatic face on and told Hakon that he didn’t know that the daughter of his daughter would be there. The rest report in and there were words said and some things given. The task was completed but in utter failure for the band. It was apparently interesting to him. It was when they were back at a meeting spot saying their goodbyes to each other, that Leo appeared with a briefcase. Leo opened up the briefcase and gave Hakon a manilla envelop which Hakon takes without question. He doesn’t open it in front of the others.

“See ya around, baggage” he remarks plainly though if anyone could see him clearly, that there was something at the corner of his eye, though before anyone could tell what it was, he was already walking away. “I might tell ya, what’s in it later but that’s iffy.”

He gets on the plane. He opens the envelop on the plane and pulls out a card and a feather. The card has these words on it:

“I’ll keep in touch.”

He would be on his way home to Finland of which his plans were first to visit Sonja, his teacher and adopted mother, and then go to the Netherlands. He hoped that he wouldn’t see the others for a long time. He reminded himself that he was a loner and didn’t work well with groups.

It was when he walked out of the airplane and being told that his motorcycle was being shipped over after him, that he would have to wait a few days to have it again. This didn’t bother him. He left the airport, not noticing the glitter of black eyes in the shadows behind him. He stuffs the card and feather into his pocket and keeps the manilla envelop close to him.

“Mother first and then mythology searching time. No killing. I need a break!” Hakon said with a shrug.

The sun was setting, and our heroes were shaken from their little denouements by a new order from their respective pantheons: go check out the Stratosphere chapel. So, the band of Scions arrived at the base of the tower and rode the elevator up for a good minute before they were able to exit into the lobby of what was currently a chapel. Guo Yu took Sasaki Ami by the arm and approached one of the receptionist, creating a distraction by feigning a want of an impromptu wedding, listing off a slew of unreasonable catering requests. Hakon, seeing an opportunity, snuck off into the shadows, popping out into wine storage some moments later - he spotted a vat of what didn’t look quite like blood and approached it. Obviously, this could be of interest to the band, so Hakon apprehensively tasted a sample and preserved another. Alex soon received a text message bearing the words “we’ve got snake blood back here,” and accordingly pulled Yu and Ami away so they can reconvene and investigate this casino at a different time, during its non-operational hours.

During the ungodly hours of early morning, before the sun had risen, our heroes re-entered the Stratosphere and found themselves once again, in the lobby of the chapel. Ami set out to distract the guard on duty at the time, but the man took one look at Yu and recognized him after his mind finished arguing with his eyes. Believing that Yu was indeed the same fellow who kicked his friend into a car and terrified him into running away, the guard split the scene and quickly descended down with the elevator. This left Hakon free to pick the lock of the double chapel doors; one push and he revealed several dozen cultists with what they assumed to be the leader engaged in some sort of ritual sacrifice involving a slightly overweight and balding man. Guo Yu barked “hands in the air!”, hoping to have interrupted the ritual in time for saving the sacrifice’s life. The ritual-performer froze mid chant, looked towards the Scion’s direction, and fled the scene with a bucket of blood. The Scions attempted to pursue, but were blocked off by a sea of cultists, brandishing swords, tridents and shields. Quickly, our heroes went to work with Alex stabbing, Ami slashing, Huginn clawing, Hakon shooting, and Yu swinging a pew as a bat. The floor eventually gave way to the stress of Guan Yu’s Scion swinging his pew every which way, and Guo Yu’s momentum was broken by a brief need to flip back up onto solid ground. Eventually, the fight ended with Yu throwing a pew at a group of cultists who managed to evade death behind their brothers, sending them crashing out the Stratosphere’s windows and falling to the Vegas streets. Unfortunately, police sirens were sounding in the distance, and the man on the altar was pretty dead. So, with haste, the Scions pursued the head cultist to a thrill ride platform; perhaps he knew he had nowhere to run, and spent his last moments yelling frantically in pidgin Greek holding a sloshing pail of blood before a giant half-roller coaster half snake Titanspawn burst into the scene, gobbled him up, and attacked the Scions.

Our heroes return to the Wynn and are immediately told by the gods there to check out the chapel. They pull up front and quickly decide on what to do. Guo suggests that Sasaki should marry him as a cover for them to get inside. Hakon, meanwhile, sneaks off and gets into the back. Huginn stays behind to be the sort of awkward standing person there (being in human form). Huginn spots something amongst the wines, a container that held some sort of red liquid, and he couldn’t tell what it was. He very carefully took a sip and found that it had that almost disgusting taste. He takes a sample and sends a text message to the others, saying that he found blood there in a container, and so Alexander shows this to Guo. Guo raises his eyebrow and the other guy does so in return. He wants to know if there are any problems. All the Scions decide to pull out and come back at a later date between the times of 2am to 4am.

They arrive back there and use the elevator. They reach the floor that the chapel was on to reveal that it was closed for a private service. There was a security guard standing there. Ami distracted him and Hakon sneaks by. He gets up to the door and picks the lock, catching that lock before it hits the ground. Yu and the guard apparently knew each other. The guard runs off and the heroes enter the room with lots of pews. There’s a guy there doing some sort of human sacrifice. Yu, foolishly shouts, “Hands in the air.” Hakon shakes his head a little in embarassment at this cliche thing that Yu did. The cultist guy runs and suddenly the room fills with cultists. There are a total of thirty of them against four demigods and a draconic raven that immediately went nemean. The cultists were screwed. Of course, they were even more screwed when Yu started swinging pews at them. The floor collapses underneath the weight of Yu and the pew, but Yu doesn’t fall because of the pew gets caught in the hole. He was lucky. The cultists were all dispatched. Huginn eats most of the eyeballs of the guys that were still there and then leaves to follow his charge. They arrive only to see the cultist guy doing his preparations and then having that guy get swallowed by a giant snake creature on the tracks of the roller coaster. This was going to be a fun fight against a creature that moved quickly and kept on moving.

The Scions, after their victory against the lindwurm, go to the show. All of them see the show and see various parts of their pantheon’s legend playing about. There’s a quite occult theme going on and of which something about a man descending into a cave. The party after this splits up and Hakon rides out into the desert to get away from the others. He sees something from the corner of his eye, something ominous, and the others seeing something on the screen on the TV. The image was only there for a short time. The same symbol/theme at the show was reversed.

The Scions eventually get to bed. They wake up the next morning refreshed. Hakon goes out into the dsert while everyone else checks out maps on google. Hakon has his raven look around for the place. He ignores a phone call and then after awhile checks his messages to see that Yu called him. He gets the location and heads over there. He finds the rest waiting for him. Alexander goes first into the cavern and the others follow. They find themselves at a very deep ravine that no one should fall into lest that they die because of it. After searching, there was no way across. Yu, conviently, had some cable with his hummer. This was used to bridge the gap, the birds helped out in this cause.

Ami slips about half-way-through and so Yu has to go back and get her. Everyone else does pretty well. The heroes continue onwards until they reach a chamber. Techutli attacks and they all jump into action. The beast was slain by the combined effort of the scions and no scions were hurt. All of the party noticed the eggs, a bed of feathers, and a boulder or two. Yu does his thing and moves the boulder aside with relative ease. There was a shroud, the Black Feather Shroud, so this had to be a mystical relic. Hakon and the others do whatever and head over to their meeting spot.

It was sometime during the same day that the band met back up at the Wynn. Karma Jenkins met them and introduced herself as the director of hotel services. She led all of them through the Wynn until they were in front of a pair of doors. She left them after that. A security camera was there and it seemed off. Eventually, the scions got in through Yu showing his pin to the camera. The doors opened up revealing the conference room and several figures sitting down at a table across from each other. The gods were there and had noticed the doors opening. Each divine parent greeted their child and led them aside to give them their gifts or in Hakon’s case to take the fenrir fang. Hakon got his fang back after they were going to leave and it was imbued with the animal (raven) purview. The scions left and the doors were closed shut. The Scions had been told to guard the door and stop anyone from interrupting the meeting.

Karma was back and wanted to know what was so important. Hakon was ready for the save and talked her out of it and made her leave them alone, except for getting some drinks and food. Yu left to get something and was further away when the ground started to tremble where Hakon and Alexander was. Hakon called Yu on the phone and told him to get down there quickly. Yu arrived only for a lindwurm to burst through the marble floor. Yu failed to hit the worm as it was quite flexible and Hakon hit it but it only did a little damage. All the others joined in and damaged it further and finally finished it off. The wurm was skinned and Ami held onto the skin as she was the battle medic for the group.

The wurm did attack at least once and it sent acid flying straight at Alex, who repelled the attack with his shield. All the Scions put the corpse back into the hole and one or two of the Scions had wurm goo on them. They cleaned themselves as best as they could before Karma arrived again. Hakon, taking in the whole being the “explanation guy” used his powers to persuade Karma to go away again and cover the fees of the reapirs. The Scions did much of the clean up for the goo. The hole was eventually repaired and no one would find out what was going on in that room. Karma Jenkins handed out a ticket to each of the four scions. These tickets were for the show Panegyris as some gesture of gratitude. They would all go to it as they had nothing better to do.

Note: I’m just catching up with some adventure logs that I planned to write my views on.
Note: I was looking at the whole “Pronouncing guide” and I realized that I was pronouncing it incorrectly. Hau-Konn is the pronunciation for the name. The last name is much easier to pronounce.
The Party had not yet met but they would within the days. I was a part of that party. The name’s Hákon Erickson, a famous assassin, in my home country of Finland (the land of the midnight sun). I learned that my name meant exalted son or highborn. I still had to live up to that name’s meaning. I didn’t know why I was even named that. Certain names can place high expectations on a person’s shoulder. I was no different but the name did fit me after all. It’s a cold but welcome place to me.
Currently, I was on America’s west coast after traveling in style. I have the money to pay for it. My adopted mother saw me off before I went. The reason for me being in America was because of Loki wanted me to come to this place called Las Vegas. I really hadn’t been up on the know-how on the United States and so this would be a new experience. I had been to England quite a few times on my assassination attempts and so I was taught the proper English. It was with these thoughts that I drove down the road, heading straight for Las Vegas. I had checked up on the roads in the United States to find that driving down or up the road was a bit different than it was in Europe. I soon found myself in the city limits and would soon arrive at the place that I was supposed to meet at with some others. Loki didn’t tell who I was meeting with or why. He just expected me to obey, like an obedient lap-dog, and well I would do that for now.
I arrived at my destination and parked my motorcycle in the parking lot in front the Greasy Spoon, a diner in Las Vegas. Huginn was perched on the very back of my Motorcycle. I walked in to the diner and looked around. I spotted an Asian lady sitting at the corner furthest from the entrance. I walked on over and sat down across from her. I introduced myself, “I’m Hakon Erickon.” She introduced herself with what I understood was a bunch of gibberish. I didn’t know what language she was speaking. She was also a scion.
I found out from her that she was Sasaki Ami. I ordered something along the lines of hot cocoa. The next fellow arrived, a man with a duffle-bag, and came to the table. He was Alexander Cross. He sat on the other side of me and put his duffle-bag on the table. I could see something there. He didn’t trust me. The last of our group wasn’t very far behind us. A tall Asian man, another scion, walked in. He sat down away from me as well. He was Guo Yu. I found the name a bit ironic. I kept my face straight after we had all introduced ourselves. It was after that we were all gathered that a man by the name of Leo walked up. He was old, and was losing his hair as I could tell. He seemed like some sort of desperate man with the way that his attire suggested. I could see that he was overweight and his eyes were bloodshot. The party and I were each given a lapel pin that held a holy symbol for our pantheons. The others and I asked a few questions and Leo answered them.
We were all supposed to go to the Wynn and be the security. We were also supposed to get our own lodgings in this city. I left with the others and saw the two hawks fighting over some dead-rabbit meat on the highway. They both killed each other. I made my way to the Excalibur, the place that I would be staying at, and got a room on the 21st floor. I wasn’t asked much of anything and got what I wanted. I went to sleep. It would be a long day ahead for me. Something that I didn’t want to think about. An assassin being part of a security detail…
What could possibly go wrong?
Note: Tried doing this entirely in first person in a perspective from Hakon like if he was writing in his journal about his travels.

Our heroes reconvened at the Wynn, where Karma Jenkins, the hotel services director, led the Scions through a labyrinthine series of corridors, lobbies, and doorways until they came to a giant set of ornate double doors, watched over by a lone security camera; it was looking a tad too expressive for Guo Yu’s comfort, and he swore it was mockingly grinning at him as he and his party attempted to make their way into the meeting room - the most reliable way of gaining entrance, knocking, didn’t work. Yu’s pin smoldered, and a single trail of incense-smelling smoke rose and faded into the air. He shrugged, thought “why not?,” and took it off his duster’s lapel, holding it high in the air for the camera to see. It seemed to work, as the heavy doors swung open, revealing a long table where a god representative from every pantheon sat - they were clearly engaging in some sort of discussion slash banter before all attention was diverted to the entering Scions. Guo Yu re-attached his pin and followed his fellow Scions, where he was much to his surprise promptly approached by his divine father, Guan Yu, from the side, completely invisible from his peripheral vision for some odd reason. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, but it didn’t matter. Yu took in this moment, which was one of the few times where he met his father in person as opposed to one of his numerous retainers. Guan Yu gingerly patted his son on the shoulder and handed him jian, which was sheathed in a subtly ornate scabbard.

“Make me proud, son,” he said, being brief.

Guo Yu nodded and hid away the sword within the voluminous confines of his duster. When the rest of the gods were done doting on their own children, they ushered their Scions out the door, with an order to stand guard and prevent anyone from interrupting their meeting. Karma attempted to weasel into the room a couple times, but relented after Hakon managed to talk her into leaving them alone, save for asking them if they needed any refreshments. Yu ordered a hamburger, a beer and the day’s newspaper, then let his back slide down the wall and sat, waiting for something exciting to happen, because if nothing gets complicated soon, this would be an extremely dull couple of hours. Suddenly, the ground began to shake; Yu’s sword began to clatter against the floor, his hamburger became disheveled, and his cigarette fell from his teeth. Fate obliged, and sent some long-awaited excitement: a lindwurm burst from the marble floor, flailing around and screeching something awful. It went berserk as Yu and Hakon opened fire, dejectedly watching as their bullets barely made a dent in its hide. Ami procured two katanas from her gym bag, and rushed the beast, swinging hard and wild - the lindwurm shrieked as the blades carved deep, liberating generous spouts of blood. Reflexively, it let loose a stream of acid which happened to fly in Alex’s direction; he quickly raised his shield to repel the attack, and rushed in with hasta at the ready. Eventually, with another terrible shriek, the titanspawn was slain under a flurry of swords, spear points, and bullets.

At someone’s suggestion, Ami stripped the lindwurm of its hide; afterwards, the Scions shoved its corpse back down the hole it came from in an attempt to cover up the recent slaughter. Guo Yu laid down a ward on the hole so that no curious fool would go looking down it. When Karma came back down, Hakon used his god-given powers to turn her away again, this time persuading her to cover the fees of the repair job she was about to call up. Eventually, the crews came down to pour cement in the hole, the cops came around to ask questions(Hakon dissuaded them from pressing any further), and Karma Jenkins gave our heroes four tickets to the show Panegyris as a form of gratitude.

The day’s meeting adjourned, and the Scions set off to the show, having successfully accomplished their first task as a band.

The Scions with still some time left before having to do Yu’s quest decide to do Ami’s quest. They were deciding what to do when it was decided by one of them that Ami should get something to help her find the pieces of the sword. Ami goes off and gets a sash from her divine parent, Amaterasu. They were off then as they go off to find the three pieces. Ami was lucky as two of the pieces were in the Imperial Palace (a hotel). One of them was a woman which Ami got a hair off of by tricking her. The other Scions couldn’t really do anything but follow her. The second piece was gotten off a young teenage girl. Ami gave a map to the girl, pulls it away quickly after that, and gets the girl a paper cut.

She treats the girl, being the caregiver that she is, and apologizes to her and her parents. Ami gets the blood drop. The two samples had glowed green. The two women had a green aura around them. The third was taken off of an old lady by making a tear come from her. Guo steps on her foot. Guo pays for a cup of ramen and apologizes while Ami gets the tear. It was with these three pieces that they went back to the Imperial Palace. Ami returns them to Amaterasu and that was that. Ami was the greatest help here. The rest of the Scions didn’t even do anything.

It was onto the last quest, Guo Yu. Hakon followed along just to provide help. He was tired and he needed to sleep. They arrived at Guan Yu’s room in the hotel that he was staying in. Guan explains that the box shouldn’t be opened or taken. Yu was going to be gone for the night and so the box needed to be protected for the entire night. It was after this that Alexander stays up through having caffeinated drinks. Hakon goes to sleep and Ami does so as well. Guo puts a ward over the door. Guo called for room service which turned out to be a farce as one of the hotel service people wielded a sword and was trying to break in.

The ward wasn’t going to last very much longer and so the Scions take care of the problem. It was after that bit that Hakon gets more sleep but outside this time. Hakon went outside into the hallway to help Yu out. They were on opposite sides of a pretty long hallway. Hakon’s raven was with him. Cultists attacked and were taken care of. Hakon takes care of two of them with his Winchester. Hakon muttered sleepily under his breath something about a headshot. The rest were taken care of by the raven, Guo, and Sasaki (being the sword-wielding healer that she is). Guo knocks one of them through the ceiling of the hallway. All of them were in the room now. The police came and the scion of Guan Yu failed at lying to the police. He had to force himself to lie to them. The lie was all about the black-robed guys and white-robed guys. Hakon backs him up and uses one of his knacks to get the police to belief him. He was quite good at doing this. He had dealt with police before. The scions had to fight another scion from the Celestial bureaucracy.

This one almost got the box but Hakon saved it quickly as he was nearest to the box. Alexander was smacked by a staff. People were tripped. The rival Scion was dealt with in all the dramatic action. The final challenge was a demon but which was no challenge at all for the new demigod. Guan Yu returned and checked with the Scions if the box was opened. They truthfully told the god that it wasn’t. He thanked Guo and his associates and gave something to him.

Father, the man in the sky, had requested that I travel to America to participate in some inter-Pantheon relations proceedings. Of course, he forgets that I can’t just take time off of work anytime I want, but I’ve got enough pull with the higher-ups fortunately. Somehow, Tucker and four of my other fellow detectives managed to persuade chief into letting them collect on their vacation days, and soon we were all flying on a single plane, on a row of aisle seats, to the infamous Sin city.

Sasaki Ami, Scion of Amaterasu, entered the Greasy Spoon, an aptly named greasy spoon, and took her seat in a corner booth far from the entrance. She ordered the only tea on the menu, black, and waited for a sign to point her in the right direction - aside from telling her to go to the Greasy Spoon in Vegas, Amaterasu didn’t really provide any more information. Fate obliged, however, and in stepped Hakon Erickson, who assumed the only customer in this nearly empty diner would be one of the Scions he was supposed to rendezvous with. As the two sat silently across from each other, Alexander Cross walked in with messenger bag at the side and a long somethin’ swaddled in all-covering cloth. Before the door could shut, Guo Yu pushed his way in, and soon all four Scions were seated at the booth, awkward as hell. As Yu tried to drink from his flask without drawing attention by slowly bringing the neck to his lips, a man walked in with a briefcase, casually ordering the diner’s daily special as he took his seat at the bar. He was rather old, balding, and had quite a beer belly; his trench coat was slightly tattered and frayed at the ends, and sported numerous unappealing dark spots. Our heroes stared at him silently as he ate, until he finished with a large belch, at which point he began to make his way towards the Scions’ booth, briefcase in hand. He explained that he was here to simply tell them to go to the Wynn casino, and produced a quartet of pins, each distinct in design - corresponding to each Scion’s pantheon. After distributing them to the appropriate Scions, he left without another word, and the Scions were left to fend for themselves. Having been given an objective, the group found little need to stick together for the moment, and left via their own means of transportation. They all needed sleep for the inevitably eventful day ahead of them.